Lafarge & Suez Cement lawsuit (re air pollution, Egypt)

On 3 October 2016, the Habi Center for Environmental Rights filed a lawsuit at the Egyptian Administrative Court challenging the use of coal by the cement companies Lafarge Egypt (part of LafargeHolcim) and the Suez Cement Group (part of HeidelbergCement). The Habi Center claims that both companies have failed to disclose required environmental impact assessment studies or details on public hearings before they started using coal in their operations. It also claims that by using coal without adhering to relevant regulations, the companies are violating the rights to health, healthy environment, participation and access to information, as enshrined in the Egyptian Constitution.

The case was filed before the Administrative Court based on a provision in the Egyptian Environment Law that allows any citizen or association concerned with the environment to seek judicial remedies in response to environmental violations. The Habi Center requests the Administrative Court to compel the government to suspend the license given to Lafarge and Suez Cement to use coal until they disclose their environmental impact assessment studies and details on relevant public hearings. The complaint also requests the Court to order both companies, as well as the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, to systematically publish the results of public hearings and environmental impact studies on their respective websites.

Prior to commencing litigation, the Habi Center tried to communicate with both companies, as well as the Environmental Affairs Agency, but did not receive satisfactory responses.

Suez Cement Group of Companies (SCGC) would like to assure the public that we take our duty as a socially responsible cement producer very seriously. SCGC’s proactive approach is focused on the prevention and mitigation of negative environmental impacts as well as the preservation of natural resources in the development and management of our five production facilities.

All SCGC plants are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified. They are also subject to comprehensive audits by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) to ensure full compliance with local and international standards … Coal energy is significantly less dangerous to work with and transport compared with petroleum products. In addition, the process to extract energy from coal, petcoke or waste materials is safe and strictly monitored by the EEAA in line with the International standards. As of now, only two of our five facilities, the Suez and Kattameya Plants, have been converted to coal energy and we are pleased with the results.

The Company has conducted numerous studies regarding the matter and presented its findings as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies to the government and key stakeholders. We are unable to publish these findings online as per Environment law No.4/1994 and its amended executive regulations No.964/2015 due to the fact that the EIA contains proprietary data about SCGC’s technology, operations and business structure.

Habi lodges an appeal in Council State against cement companies and the Ministry of Environment

[As part of] its program for corporate accountability and the campaign against violations of cement companies, especially those using coal, the Habi Center had addressed Lafarge company Egypt and Suez Cement group [on several occasions] to urge them to comply with environmental law and to announce their environmental impact assessment studies [and their public consultation hearings] with regards to the use of coal, but the companies did not respond to Habi. [The Center also addressed] the Ministry of environment and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) to encourage them to commit cement companies to implement local legislation and international conventions, but the EEAA response was weak…

[A]fter consultations with many human rights organizations and activists, [the Habi Center lodged appeal #403 L71 before the Administrative Court [against] both the Prime Minister in his capacity as Minister of State for Environmental Affairs and Chairman of the EEAA, the chairmen of Egypt Lafarge and of the Suez cement Group. The appeal [calls for the government] to apply environmental legislation and the constitution on [the] cement companies.

Environmental Affairs Agency did not respond to Habi’s last message (the third one), after more than five weeks. The message has highlighted the demands regarding publicizing the situation of cement companies in Egypt; especially Suez Group and Lafarge.

Habi is now sending its fourth and last message to ask the Environmental Affairs Agency to reveal how much these companies commit to law and to respond to our previously sent demands. In case that EAA does not respond or negatively responds, Habi will go to court to sue EAA and cement companies.

In the context of the correspondences between Habi Center for Environmental Rights and The Environmental Affairs Agency (EAA) regarding the environmental and human rights violations committed by cement companies that use coal, Habi received another response from the EAA to the demands sent on 5th May 2016. The EAA’s response [stated that it would not be possible to publish] the content of environmental impact assessment studies of these companies and that the executive summary of these studies will be published on the internet in addition to the dates of consultation sessions… [On 27 June 2016,] Habi sent a letter to the EAA [repeating its demands] regarding the necessity of publishing the names of the companies that actually started using coal on EAA website in addition to publishing EIA studies or at least their executive summaries, the minutes of hearing sessions of these companies, the names of companies that will use the coal in future, and finally oblige these companies to publish the previously mentioned information on their websites.

"Habi" Demands Cement Multinational Companies to Stop Violating and Commit to Local and International Law", 28 September 2015

...on...3rd September 2015 Habi sent a group of demands to [LafargeHolcim and Suez Cement (part of Italcementi)]...including: • Committing to local environmental legislations and relevant international charters. • Publishing environmental impact assessment studies or their summaries regarding changes done by these companies by using coal instead of gas. • Publishing listening sessions concerning environmental impact assessment studies especially those regarding using coal as an alternative to gas. Those minutes should be available on the website of the company. • Considering transparency rules that require the necessity of publishing violations committed by the company on its website, in addition to publishing the agreed upon plans to avoid these violations in future according to what stated by international human rights charters and United Nations Guiding Principles regarding business and human rights.

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